मैं हिंदुस्तान हूँ।

देखते हैं कौन महान है।

वो देखो उसे, जा रहा लंगोट में
छोटा सा कुरता, माथे पर चंदन
सर पर एक चोटी, छाते की ओट में

पूछा उस से, क्या तुम महान हो?
नही मैं हिंदुस्तान हूँ।

अरे देखो वो कौन आ रहा
पहने है पैजामा, सिर पर गोल टोपी
लंबा सा कुर्ता, नमाज़ के लिए जा रहा

सुनो तो, क्या तुम महान हो?
जनाब मैं हिंदुस्तान हूँ।

ढूंढो, पकड़ो, किधर तो मिलेगा
अरे उधर तो देखो

अरे देखो वो कौन कामगार है खेत में
मज़दूरी और पसीना, रोटी है बोता
मैले हैं कपड़े, सोता है रेत में।

अरे भाई सुनो, क्या तुम महान हो
नही मालिक मैं हिंदुस्तान हूँ।

चलो भाई अभी तक तो नही मिल सका हमें कोई महान
चलो आगे बढ़ें कहीं तो होगा इसका समाधान

दूर देखो उस जवान को
हाथो मैं है बंदूक, चेहरे पर नही कोई शिकन
कर रहा है रक्षा, पूछो इसे कहीं यही महान हो।

क्या तुम समाधान हो, हामारे महान हो
जय हिंद जनाब, मैं हिंदुस्तान हूँ।

लगता है हमें नही मिल पायेगा कोई यहां महान
नही होगा हमारा कोई समाधान

तभी एक बुजुर्ग मिला
अपने होठों को हिला
बोला महान ढूंढ रहे हो।
अरे क्यों आंखे मूंद रहे हो।

जो तुम्हे कहता की वह हिंदुस्तान है
वही महान है, वही महान है।

बाबा बताइये आप कौन है

मैं हिंदुस्तान हूँ।
मैं हिंदुस्तान हूँ।

The guilty guru...

Lately I have been taking classes of this simple and brilliant student of class 12th.
And recently I had the most weird conversation with her.
It had been almost 2 months of the classes and all the syllabus almost over. I was explaining to her the novel "The invisible man", and all of a sudden she started to sob.
I asked her what the matter was but she kept silent, and wiped her tear and asked me to continue with the chapter.
It was as if I had done something that I should not have, and asked once again
" Did I do or say something that made you cry?"
She kept quiet and shook her head and to my satisfaction it was a no.
But the question still lingered in my mind why did she sob, but I continued to teach her the chapter. All of a sudden she said something and the following is the conversation what we had that day.

She: why are all the boys dogs?
I      : pardon me!
She: sorry sir, shall we continue with the chapter.
I.     : You said something about boys being dogs, I could not understand what you meant.
She : sorry about that.
I.      : If you have anything in your mind you should share it. May it be your mother or your father.

She kept quiet for some time while I waited for an answer, she started to sob once again and I could do nothing.
I told her if she wanted to share something with me she can. Let her mind be at peace as it was the most important time of her studies as she would be giving her boards exams.
Then she started again.

She : Sir I have a boyfriend, sorry I had one.
I       : Did you have a fight with him?
She : No sir no fight. He broke off with me.
I.      : What's the reason.
She.: I still don't know.
I.      : Does your parents know about him.
She.: Yes sir..

I aksed her who the boy is, what does he do, and the age of that boy. To which she told me the whole story.

She said,
It all started 5 months back. My father asked me if i needed any help in any of the subjects, i told him that i was lagging in accounts and i wanted someone to clear my doubt.
My father asked someone to help him in searching a good tutor of the subject.
One of his friends told him to contact a tutorial from where his ward had asked for a private tutor and got 90% in his boards.
My father took the number and called them.
They sent a guy claiming that they could only provide his services as other private tutor were already booked.

This guy came for a demo class and i liked his teaching. I told my father about the way he taught and we fixed the classes, he started coming to my house on alternative days, and soon we became quite frank. He told me that he is going to be a C.A. soon.

One day he asked me if I had a boyfriend, and I had none, not due to my parents restrictions, but I never thought of making one. So I told him the truth, and he smiled at me. I never thought that he would ask such question, but then we were like friends who could  share our  thoughts. He told me why he had asked me this question, and not to my surprise he was interested in me. It was a strange experience for me as no one before him had spoken to me about this. He told me I was beautiful and a brilliant student, started praising me for everything. He started bringing me presents like chocolates and other stuff. He made me feel so special that I had started to fall for him. It was like heaven and the things that didn't matter were more precious now.

We became very close and one day he proposed me. I accepted his proposal coz I started to like him like no other. He then started coming to my house on daily basis, we studied together and chatted for almost an hour till it was his time to go for another class. My parents being working didn't know about this relationship that was growing in their absence. Day by day our love for each other grew and by december we had started to meet outside aswell. He would come and meet me outside my school and on his bike we would come together to my house, but he would stop the bike 3-4 streets before my street so that the neighbors would not notice.

But on the last day of my preboards exam my father without informing me came to take me home and he saw both of us leave from my school on his bike. When I came to the house he asked me all that had been happening behind their back, and I like a foolish girl told him all about our relationship.
That day for the first time in my life my father slapped me. I could not believe what he did, I told him that he is a nice guy and he loves me alot. My mother came as I was explaining my father and she stood at the gate. She listened to all the conversation that I had with my father and then she came in banging the door shut. She slapped me hard and said she never expected me to do such things.

That evening he didn't come, we were all waiting for him, especially my father who wanted to talk to him. It had been past 6 pm now and there was no news of his arriving, the class was at 5, he was already an hour late now. My father looked at me frowning.

But at night both of them asked me to have dinner with them. I came to the dinner table and my mother showed extra love for me, and  during this evening the anger that had been on my father's face now gone. I could not look into his eyes where a tear rolled down his cheek. Today i felt guilty as well as ashamed of myself.

There was a creepy silence all around for a few minutes till we finished the meal. Then my father broke the silence. He told me he had been trying to contact my tutor all this time and he had been evading all his calls. He has even talked to the tutorial people about his whereabouts but they could not tell us any thing about him. My father told me there is no use calling him again. I could not believe what my father had just told me.
He even tried to call him in front of me many times but it was true he didn't pick the call.

For a week we waited for a call from him but as my parents had expected there was none. I did not know what to expect and what not to.
His phone was now switched off, and my parents asked me if I was ok. I could not study nor go to school. It was as if he had vanished from the earth. No contact nothing.
All these things happened in no time.

Sir I don't know what to do. I don't have anyone to share my feelings. If I talk to my parents they would be even more stressed so I just felt like crying.
I asked her if she felt better.
She told me that she is now feeling a bit light and asked me to finish the class.

I told her if she needed any help or she wanted to discuss anything she could share it with me.
She thanked me for my gesture and went straight to her room sobbing again.

I packed my bag and as soon as I went to the door I saw her parents standing at the gate, tears in their eyes. During all this conversation we hadn't noticed it was already past 8 pm, our class should have ended by 6. And I then noticed that they must have been standing at the gate for more than an hour. The mother went straight to the daughter's room. The father offered to drop me at the nearest metro station. I accepted.
He did not say a word during the drive. He then dropped me at the metro. Thanked me and asked me the timing of the next class.

I borded the metro and  thoughts came to my mind 'how can a teacher do such thing', ' the boy, at least could have called them'.

"But I can't do anything about it", I thought.
The only thing I can do is listen to her, make her feel light. What does she need only someone to listen to her. Yes I can do this.

Let's hope she would soon.........

One missed call

It was the time when I had recently graduated and was preparing for my master's degree entrance examinations.
It was april if I remember it correctly, and was having my lunch that day. My phone was on charging and was kept on silent.
I came back to take my phone and there were a few missed calls, one from my sister, and the other from an un-known number
I called back to my sister and talked for about 15 min. And when I disconnected the call, I saw another missed call from the same number. I knew that it must be tashu or abhishek my coll. Mates who had the uncanny habit of calling people from unknown numbers just to play pranks so I ignored it and went back about my business.
The phone once again rang and this time I picked up and to my pleasant surprise it was a girl, and asked me to give the phone to some girl named nancy. I told her that she might have been mistaken in dialing the number as this was my number and I don't know anyone named nancy (apart form the one in my coll.)
She apologized and disconnected the call at once and I had a smile on my face, I had heard of such incidences where people had dialed a wrong number but never received one in my life and that too with such sweet voice.
But ignoring it i resumed my work.
A few days later there came another missed call from the same number, I ignored it this time and a few minutes later there was a call from it. I picked up the call and there was the sweet voice but this time it didn't ask for  Nancy, it asked my name. I was a bit surprised as to why this girl wanted to know my name. I asked her why she wanted to know. She said nothing and disconnected the call.
It was a bit queer, and i thought, can this be tashu's another prank asking some randon friend of his to talk to me and make fun of infront of everyone. This is how tashu the great  works. Quite sure, I called back at the number to confront the person. But no one picked the call. I called again and same was the result, no answer.
I thought calling tashu would be no good as he would deny this act, so I waited for another call or a missed call at least, but for a month no call came from the number. And I forgot about it.
But approx. 2 months later I got another call from the same number, as I picked the call she asked me my name again, I told her to tell tashu that his game is over and I know he is the one behind all these calls. She must have smiled at this as I could hear the tone of her voice when she said she doesn't know anyone by that name and told me her name
"Priya". I asked her where did se get my number from, but as soon as I finished my sentence she disconnected again. I felt something strange and called back to the number,
This time she picked up but said nothing.
There was complete silence on that side, i knew it had to be me to break that strangeness, so "hi", said I,
This was a bit awkward as I had never talked like this to anyone in my life, then came the answer "hello".
This time my heart throbbed, I asked her why did she call me. There was no answer.
I was curious to know things about her, but most importantly, I  longed to hear that sweet voice once again.
I changed the topic and asked her what does she do, thinking she may answer and would listen to that heart throbbing voice again. But no answer.
I told her if she didn't want to talk then she should disconnect the phone. I know that I could have done the same but I just could not and neither did she.
The silence grew stronger and stronger, nobody had anything to say, just the sounds in the background and the beating of my heart.

Still no answer.
Suddenly she disconnected the phone, I waited for the missed call again but there was none.
Why did she disconnect, why did she call at first, who was she? These questions were troubling me.
I know I could have called but I didn't, not knowing what she would think about me.....